This invention relates to a relatively lightweight portable device for collecting and also playing with small disc-like objects, particularly coins. The purpose of the device is to combine the features of a small or toy bank and a toy which uses one or more coins in games requiring manual dexterity and coordination.
Various prior devices are known for directing coins through some general form of conical surface into a collecting zone or box. Most of these relate to forms of fare boxes for mass transit vehicles, and are typified in U.S. Pat. No. 269,195 to Golding, Norwegian Pat. No. 64,495 to Flikkeid (1942), German Gebrauchmuster No. 2,507,963 (1975) , and published German application No. 1,137,884 (1962). U.S. Pat. No. 433,736 discloses a toy bank having a spiral ramp of several coils leading to a slot in the top of a drum-like base or container.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,092,928 discloses a toy for use with marbles, including an upper flat circular pan with a feed groove around its periphery leading to a tubular generally vertical track which discharges into a tangential extension of the top of an inverted conical base, so the marbles circle the base in decreasing circles an exit through a central bottom hole into a separate pan-like container. U.S. Pat. No. 3,559,990 discloses a form of bowling game including a large concave paraboloid shaped surface or "rink" onto which balls are released toward target pins located part way down the surface. U.S. Design Pat. Nos. Des. 233,057 and Des. 238,891 show inverted generally conical game surfaces onto which balls or marbles are released, apparently to circle downward and exit though a central bottom hole.
In addition, applicant is the inventor of a large coin collecting device, including a generally conical surface with a coin guiding ramp, supported on a large free standing barrel-like base. Coins released on the ramp roll around the surface and drop into the base. Devices of this nature are relatively large and are intended for use as a novelty coin collecting device for charitable causes, being placed in retail stores, shopping malls, etc. along with appropriate signs describing the cause for which donations of coins are sought, and rewarding the donor (for example small children) by observing the long spiral path of the coins as they roll on edge toward a central hole in the surface and thence drop into the base. Such a device is shown in U.S. design application Ser. No. 821,300 filed 22 Jan. 1986.